terrorism
noun
Simple meaning
The calculated use of violence against civilians to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tehrerihzuhmSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɛɹɚɪzəm
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear
The use of unlawful violence against people or property to achieve political objectives.
by extension
The use of intimidation or bullying tactics.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear
In this sense, terrorism is a very strong, expressive word and reaches for fear at its strongest, so mild worry is well below it.
- Emotional tone
- Strongly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Very strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Strongly negative / painful
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
- Government/politics
- Personal/emotional discussion
Usage note
Terrorism is emotionally heavy: it suggests deep or lasting feeling, not a passing mood, so it can overstate a small reaction.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.